I hava 2009 Mac Pro 8 core. Dual 2.26ghz processors, 26 gigs of ram, and Quadro4000 video card. I use this machine for video editing, and all is great. I've started getting into blender recently,to learn how to integrate 3D objects into my videos.

I have an idea, for a complex animation, and I'm learning the different parts, that I want to combine together. I'm finding when doing something like a smoke simulation, my play back is ok at lower resolutions. When I raise my resolution, for baking, the system is slow. Even after baking I'm getting less then 1fps play back.

Is there anything I can do to help this on my system, or should I look into building a windows based system, strictly for blender?

Thanks for the help,
Jeff